Grand Theft Auto V Delivers On All Eight Cylinders - Wall Street Journal

I've always found the storylines in GTA games stilted and stupid. I've also never been able to identify with the "protagonist," if that's what you can call someone who often maims and kills his way to successful missions. This time, though, developer Rockstar North has offered a wrinkle, letting you play as and switch between three main characters, two of whom — Michael and Franklin — have already displayed enough warmth and humanity for me to feel some empathy toward them. The third — Trevor — is a total psychotic knob, and is more what we've come to expect from GTA anti-heroes over the years. I don't want to spoil the game, but the premise is that the three main characters — kind of like in a Steven Soderbergh movie — are interconnected. Michael is a former criminal who got out and now lives the high life on the proceeds of his past life. Trevor cooks meth and goes on binges of violence. Franklin does repo work for a car dealer and skirts around the edges of a criminal world. The three come together to pull off heists. For those new to GTA, entering its world will be daunting. You're expected, through a combination of fighting (armed and unarmed), driving vehicles and stealth to complete a series of missions. Your characters each have multiple skills, which can get built up over the course of the game by completing missions. You are, of course, free to veer from missions and accept one-off mini-tasks that pop up on the screen as you're playing. Or, you can just explore and cause your own, unscripted brand of mayhem through theft of any car or other vehicle you want. You can start fights, shoot or run over innocent civilians. Beware the cops, though. Hurt too many innocents or scratch one of their cars, and they will relentlessly come after you, ramming your car and shooting you if you try to flee on foot. For returnees and aficionados of GTA, it's not just the bigger maps that make this game great. The graphics must be making current-generation consoles groan, testing their very limits. I had to clear space on my hard drive to allow the install of around 8.5GB of data before I could play. People and buildings cast realistic shadows. The early-morning sun actually blinds you as you drive east, the highway roads look pebbly, trees and scrub are incredibly detailed. I found myself stopping by the side of the road just to marvel at stone arches and monuments that were designed with precision I haven't previously seen in games. Everywhere you look, there are people walking or driving. There's stuff going on. It's unlike the aimless walking and drone-driving of earlier GTA games. Most-impressive to me was that Rockstar seems to have solved the "grey-teeth syndrome" that seems to plague most virtual humans in current-generation consoles. Teeth look more realistic when characters' mouths move. I only had one dropped-frames experience in a parking garage, in the middle of a fight with a security guard. My car disappeared, as did the guard, and everything turned grey until I dispatched the guy. But that was all. This game makes GTA IV look like kindergarten. The handling of cars in GTA IV was mushy, slow and more like driving a boat or a 1970's Detroit special. That is no longer an issue in GTA V, unless you actually are handling something like a boat. High-performance cars you rip off scream tighly around corners, and I had fingertip control of every vehicle I drove. The patter between characters in GTA V is profane, vulgar and totally in-character with the game, though it gets extremely tiresome and repetitive after you've tried to complete the same mission for the third or fourth time. I am happy to say that there are actual checkpoints in GTA V, so you don't have to go too far back or restart missions, as you did in previous versions. Heists, though, are the biggest addition to this game, and the choices you have to make planning them make for a nail-biting experience. You can either meticulously plan for a more-stealthy takedown, or you can go in violently, guns-blazing. It's amazing to me how this one, simple element suddenly gives the game more meaning than a linear series of missions you need to complete. As well, allowing the main character to play the stock market — and influence prices by his actions before buying or selling — adds a new wrinkle and level of depth and reality to a game that is more surreal than real. Another thing that impressed me, apart from the again wonderful selection of tunes on car radio stations, was the ability to watch TV programs on the main character's television. You can change channels and actually watch the different loops on different channels. That sets this game apart from others I've played this year. And there's absolutely irreverent, snarky social commentary over car radios and between characters on everything from the American Dream to social-media networks. GTA V radio commentary on the all-pervasive and intrusive "LifeInvader," should make Facebook cringe. I look forward to going to back to this game after this review to try more of the over-the-top weapons and vehicles and stunts, including flying a helicopter, jumping from a plane and riding a jet ski. I played the other GTA games all the way through and look forward to doing that with GTA V, though I suspect it will take me far longer than GTA IV did. I have to say I was disappointed that GTA V remains misogynistic to the nth degree. Women in this game are floozies, skanks, hos or whatever nasty generalization or stereotype you can associate women with. I don't write this to be politically correct, but why can't there be a kick-ass, fantastic, Angela Jolie-type female main character in a GTA game? It's 2013, and it's not all about big boobs and tramp stamps in video-gaming. I will recommend GTA V to anyone who asks me what game they should consider buying for their current-generation console and think it just all fits together very well. The eye for detail, the plot, the characters, the gameplay. They just work and feel big and celebratory of the genre. Let's be clear. It's a nasty, violent genre. There's absolutely nothing redeeming about GTA V, no uplifting Christian tales of redemption or pink bunnies or unicorns.  If you're a parent or grandparent eyeing something fun for your under-13 kids or grandkids, this absolutely isn't the right game. But if you want to drive, shoot and wreak havoc, GTA V delivers. The game retails for just under $60. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNG20lMTfJedUc6SNcGD0KgApjxXkw&url=http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-329705/

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